[Xander’s Story]

Xander and his party were slowly drained of their supplies. They couldn't even rest due to the relentless assault by the deep-dwellers. The fought hordes of eyeless abominations, the deep-dwellers are almost human except for the lack of eyes and a gaping mouth with long jagged teeth. They crawled quickly on the ground, relentless in their bloodthirst and hunger for flesh. The resident [Guardian] who tanked for them, was viciously ripped apart right in front of their eyes. They didn’t even have time to mourn, because they too would join him if they didn’t use this opportunity to run. Running, Escaping, fighting desperately through the pain, extreme exhaustion, each of these eventually became lethal to them one by one. Each time they thought they understood the depths, a new terrifying beast would come emerging from the shadows.

They fell, one by one, until 2 were left. A mangled [Master Thief] who was dragging his left leg behind him. Delirious from the rising infection and the lack of water. And a [Spatial Mage] who was so horribly injured, that any cleric would declare him a lost cause. He is so riddled with stab wounds and pus-filled burn wounds that you wonder if he truly was alive at all. They could see the light of the surface after 5 trauma-filled days in the Underworld. They even saw an adventurer party coming towards them from the light, but unfortunately for them most adventurers are not colleagues. One of the deadliest things to an injured party is not some monster, but an opportunistic party of fellow adventurers. But they were too injured and delirious to remember that.

Xander walked up to ask for help from the [Knight] party leader, but he just slashed his sword at him removing 2 of the fingers from his right hand. Xander fell backwards from the shock of being attacked by people, and the Knight took advantage by running up and trying to stab him through his heart. [Spatial Mage] had one last moment of clarity through the delirium of death’s door, he unleashed a final spell called Dimension Slice at the attacking party. The mage fell over, finally spent and dead after his last attempt to live. The opposing party never even understood what happened, they suddenly found themselves cut cleanly in half. Xander was the last one remaining, he slowly stumbled his way out of the Underworld to the safety of Chawborough. The next few weeks were a blur of fever dreams, deep moments of regret and mourning, and the sudden loss of everything he had built up after all these years. He spent 1 final month in the City of Chawborough, gathering everything he and his companions left behind.

He bought a massive Magic Bag to hold all of the remaining books he had yet to sell, sold all of his assets for coin, and then moved back to the small village he had first called home. But the village was no longer there when got there, the recent wars the Empire had with their northern brethren has reduced the village to nothing but rubble and ash. He no longer had a home left anywhere in this world. He traveled north, not really trying to go anywhere. He just wandered aimlessly for a while, spending a few nights at an inn here or there. That is until he found himself in Rompounge and heard someone speak English for the first time in years. It was a group of 4 youngsters, 2 boys and 2 girls around 18 years, who had spoken english aloud. He came up to them to speak english with them, shocking both parties that they really found a comrade in this mysterious world.

They talked for a long time, each having their own stories about this world and the world they came from. Xander gave them money to buy good equipment and gave them all of the adventuring advice he knew, and they gave a broken fool companionship in the form of listening to his old stories. He eventually used his money to buy a shop to host the books he hasn’t sold yet, and made a place for them to talk and gather. They were fun conversations, each of them enjoyed the company of each other. They would come in often over the next year, Xander felt like he had found something after being lost for so long. But after a few years they stopped coming in as often, slowly their intervals of fun conversations growing farther and farther apart. Eventually they stopped coming in anymore, and he has no idea why. He tried to find any info of them, even offered up hefty gold rewards for any information at the local Adventurer’s guild. But nothing came up, and he was alone again. He waited years at his bookstore, hoping for the day that someone will come up and speak to him in English once again.

[Blake’s POV]

Damn that is a long and sad story old man, shit you have been through a lot. I quietly thought to myself, thinking about how Xander has been here for so long. It seems like he has not tried to go back though, not that I blame him after the rough ending he had back on Earth.

“Hey Xander, How long have you been here in this world?” I said to Xander, a bit misty eyed at his story.

“I have been here in Kanaam for over 20 years, though time is quite relative here in this world.” Xander said cryptically.

“What do you mean by that, does time not flow the same around this world?” Rhyse said, a little bit worried.

“There are different realms of existence that overlap with each other, the Underworld is one, the Fae Wilds, the Shadowfel, and the many different planes that god-like beings rule. Plus powerful mages can make their pocket dimension with their own rules on time. Simply put, don’t ever trust time to be on your side.” He said, with bitterness in his voice.

“Alright, so how about the 20 years you have spent here. Have you learned of any way to make it back home in all of that time?” I said with a slight amount of hope in my voice.

“Surprisingly yes, but it is extremely difficult. You will have to make a pact with a powerful being, which unsurprisingly tend to be rather enigmatic if not downright unhelpful. Another method is to build a powerful magical item to create a stable gate between two worlds, but that is an insane method. The only ones that I can think that succeeded with that method are the Mindflayers. They are most definitely not friendly, so don’t try that one.” Xander said, leaving no real hope of a quick method home.

“It seems like we are going to be here for a while then. I expected it to be difficult, but directly hearing it still puts me down.” said Rhyse, depressed upon hearing the truth.

“Don’t be too pessimistic, There are tons of places and people I have never encountered or explored. Just keep exploring ruins, something interesting bound to turn up.” Xander said to cheer us up a bit.

“Well, another question I have is how to use skills and magic. Only Rhyse can still use magic at the moment. I can only channel it into my body for now.” I asked.

“I have several grimoires I can sell you if you wish. They can help you learn magic, though skills have to be trained into you. Perhaps find a teacher to train you, or do as I did and learned everything through hardened battle.” Xander said, with a smirk at the end.

“Before I continue, I need to know who you are and how you got here. The other 4 I have met didn’t want to tell me, so I am curious about the other ways people came to Kanaam.” Xander said, wanting to know the full story.

Rhyse and I sighed, and then began a rather abbreviated story on how we got here. We told him that we were playing a game Endless Story Saga, and got transferred here after the launch of the newest expansion. We talked about how we were transferred in the bodies of our game characters, with jobs and equipment intact. We said that we have been here for over 2 weeks, and nothing has come to explain what has happened to us. We were trapped and isolated in a world that is alien, in bodies that were not ours. Nothing we knew made sense anymore, and we have to do dangerous exploration missions in the hopes we can find some way home.

Xander sat in silence as we slowly ranted about how awful our situation is, he listened carefully and made sure to not interrupt. We all know he has had a rougher time, but that doesn’t mean that we can suddenly be overjoyed to be here. We finished our story and sat in silence for a bit, letting the details sink in. He then got up to pull out various grimoires from his shop and a few massive tomes that lacked a cover.

“These books will teach some basics about magic as well as some basic spells. The tomes are everything I had compiled on spatial and summoning magic. I don’t know if they will be of any help for you, but I would be happy if you take them. They were my attempts to help that group of 4 find a way back home, but they stopped coming in before I could finish compiling it.” He said gently.

“Are you sure? This must have taken you years to make and research, is there anything we can repay you with?” I said to him, happy at his generosity.

“Just let me come see your camp sometime, and make sure to visit me often. It is quite lonely in my shop after all.” He said with a kind smile.

Rhyse and I decided to stay a while, listening to the many stories of conquest and treasure that Xander had to offer. He told us a story when the leader of Fortuna managed to seduce a Drow who came out from the Underworld to hunt for slaves. He also told a story when the party [Spatial Mage] tried to use his Dimension Slice to chop lumber for the town, but he cut way more lumber than needed and ruined the forest for a while. His stories mentioned that the Mandenian Empire used to own 70% of all of the land on this continent, but a civil war 10 years ago freed the northern provinces like this city-state we are in right now. That story brought us to the discussion of a map, but apparently they are only poor quality maps available for commoners. The high quality maps are only for the use of political leaders, so he is unable to provide a detailed map of the world at the moment. We didn’t mind, since he had given us so much to begin with, and continued back on his stories once again.

We talked for a long time, the sky slowly began to turn maroon indicating the dusk arriving. He let us out of the shop to return back to the inn, and we promised him to visit again soon. We waved goodbye and headed back to the inn, making sure that the books we received are well secured in our bags of holding. After a healthy walk back up the hill the inn was built upon, we arrived to see our full team in the dining hall. It almost looked like they were waiting for someone...oh I guess we were gone for a while after all.

“Rhyse! Blake! Finally you made it back! What the hell took you guys so long!!” Anne said with bubbling anger, upset at our tardiness.

“Sorry, sorry. We had a long chat with someone quite interesting.” I said Anne, trying to calm her down.

“Well, you better tell the rest of us all about our dinner. And you better be paying for several rounds of all for the lot of us for making us worry so much!” Anne said with a pout, and then sat at a long table that had enough room for the lot of us to sit at.

Rhyse and I decided to not fight the punishment and went to the table with the rest of the group. We had a long chat about who we met, and where he originated from. The several stories of his, and of course we talked about the books we were given. The whole team enjoyed a party-like atmosphere filled with delicious food, good booze, and a wonderful tale of finding another person from Earth. The other parties also had success as well, the girls group found several magic shops and book shops. They also were able to find several shops that sell spices, salts, and sugar. All of these are important ingredients needed for Athenaeum, our humble town compared to the size of this city. They also found a cloth maker, and a clothier. Finding quality clothes is quite difficult in this new world, so that is a most welcome find.

Tyler and Jack with their group, were able to find several quality armorsmiths and blacksmiths, even a few leather makers. The leather is probably the most useful due to our need to replace the broken leather bits in our armour. One of the leather straps tying my armor down is already beginning to fray, so I am quite pleased to hear it. Their only issue is that nobody was able to procure a quality map, since the state tends to be quite guarded on their production and use. But this was honestly expected after the talk with Xander, so I wasn’t disappointed. We have completed most of the missions entrusted to our team, all we need to do is procure the items we need and head on back home. I am sure we can return with our heads held high after a haul like this.

After each group gave their updates and the alcohol began to take effect, we started to head on back to our rooms. We each had a long day in this city, our stamina was being constantly drained by the newness of everything around us. I stuck around at the bar, letting my team hit the beds before me. Unlike my lonely drinking last night, I have a rather good reason to stay this time. It took me a while to notice, but we had an audience to the nice party we had going. Several people who I didn’t see before in the inn were dining in the hall with us. They didn’t want to glance at us, or try to remember our faces. They instead wanted to listen in on our conversation. Their only problem was that we were speaking english instead of the common tongue spoken here. I have a feeling that they were not going to go back to their masters with the info they gathered was that we spoke an unknown language.

I sat around for a bit, pretending to drink from ale as I glanced around the room to see how many watchers I had on me. I only counted 4, but I am sure there are more. Damn, I wish I paid attention on the way back to the inn. They have probably been tailing us for a while. To be honest, I am not sure how to proceed with this, If I tell the group, they will definitely escalate this to a brawl. But if I try to handle this alone, I don’t have the confidence I can win. I could call Rhyse, but his magic is way too flashy and distinguishing. Anne is an option too, but I can’t ask a gentle soul like that to potentially kill people. That only left Tyler and Jack, our 2 resident edgelords. They can cause a scene as well, but I think if we can find a quiet alley way they will behave appropriately. I get up to go to my room, I think it is time to see whether they are here to merely observe or here to find a chance to strike. I got Tyler and Jack with me, explaining the situation to them quietly in our room. The 3 of us went back to the table I was drinking at, seeing if there is any change in reaction from these watchers.

Only 2 of the 4 observers made a reaction when I brought Tyler and Jack to the table with me. But none of them got up to leave even though I gave an obvious signal I was on to them. It seems that they are here for a fight, which I would rather avoid. Jack was glaring at one of the ones who reacted, trying to pressure him to leave. Tyler was just looking around the room, almost taunting them to make a move. We just sat there, with the rest of the diners oblivious to the tension that is building right in front of them.

I decided it was enough, I got up with Tyler and Jack and went outside. We walked for a bit, trying to give our “friends” enough time to catch up. We found a hidden thin alleyway that leads to a slight opening between 3 buildings. It is completely closed off, the only entrance was the alleyway that led us here. We waited for a while, but before long our “friends” came to join us. There were 6 of them here, all of them hooded with their weapons drawn out. We can tell that there will most definitely not be a peaceful resolution between the 2 of our parties.

“So, are you here to have a friendly chat with us?” I said sarcastically.

“Maybe, if you tell us where you found those ancient coins you traded in.” One of the hoods finally spoke, saying something that he clearly doesn’t mean.

We all stood facing each other with our weapons drawn, the 2 sarcastic sentences seemed to have signaled the end of any negotiations. Only a tense silence filled the air, bloodthirst so thick you could slice it with a knife. One of the hoods wielding 2 oddly shaped shortswords seems unable to take it and rushes towards Jack, lunging forward in an animal like manner. The others also began to leap into action, with 2 heading towards Tyler and 3 of them coming after me.

2 hoods ran towards, one wielding 2 daggers and the other with a shortspear. One stayed back with a bow and arrow to take potshots at me, perfectly timed with the strikes of the other ones attacking. The hooded assailant with the dagger is relentlessly charging at me, preventing me from properly swinging my massive sword. The other one with short spear times his assault just perfectly to prevent me from putting distance between me and the dagger-user. The last one has deadly precision with his arrows, leaving me only room to try to dodge awkwardly. The fight is not going well, I should have brought Rhyse with us despite the risk people would learn about his strange magic. All I can do now is barely hold on, good thing my body is pretty high-spec.

After several rounds of combat, I was left exhausted and cornered by the relentless team of 3. They obviously are a team just by their timing alone, someone like me who has only trained for 2 weeks is obviously outmatched. The only thing keeping me alive is the sheer ability of my body, and the quality of my armor. I stood there breathing heavily, hearing the sounds of desperate combat coming from Tyler and Jack as well. Though I had no opportunity to see how they were doing, since the dagger-user kept on coming after me. It seems the only face to break through this fight is to get a little desperate.

The dagger user leaped at me with the full intent to kill, his speed preventing me from drawing my sword to stop him. The spearman was aiming directly behind me, creating the perfect trap if I dodge away from the daggers. The Archer had an arrow completely drawn, ready to let it fly right at me after either situation happened. But they were so focused on their move, they hadn’t anticipated that I would do something completely out of their predictions. I used my left hand to block the dagger he lunged with, he stabbed his deadly blade right through my palm. The agony nearly made me faint, but the desperation in me pushed me to grab his blade and throw him off balance. I used my right hand with my sword to strike him while he was distracted by my insane actions. I could only hit him with the blunt side of my blade and only half on my power with one hand. But the force striking his head sent rolling across the floor. A pool of blood was growing where his head lay, his limbs were twitching and like he was having a seizure.

The other 2 assailants hesitated a slight second in their next assault due to seeing their comrade being broken like a cardboard box. It was a small opening, but it gave me enough room to finally swing my massive sword at the Shortspear-user. He was quick to put up his guard, but the wooden handle of the spear was no match for the might of my sword. The blade shattered the wooden pole and carried through to his left shoulder. The shear force of the blade tore through his armored upper body, separating his arm and body from the joint. The wound poured blood from a grotesque lump of gore and shattered bone, he didn’t even have time to scream out in pain as he passed out from the shock of the blow.

That left one last assailant, the archer. The hooded figure stared at my blood splatter figure, breathing heavily as I wielded a ridiculous blade with my right hand only. Quickly deciding the battle was lost, he turned tail and ran away before I could run him down with my blade. I started to run after him, but something overcame me as my stride began. Some sort of dark malaise and seething anger came boiling out from the pits of my gut. What the fuck is this guy doing!?! Does he think he can just attack and run away without consequences!?! He just leaves his comrades without any attempt to avenge them!?! And most of all, he thinks he can try to kill and get away with it! FUCK YOU! Dark thoughts flood his mind, a seething growl starting coming from out his mouth. He suddenly felt he remembered something he had forgotten...a skill that will kill this fucking coward.

He channeled all of the darkness in his mind and in his body into his oversized blade, and then slash the blade brimming with hatred at the direction of his fleeing enemy. A vertical black line of dark energy emerged from the anger filled slash of the Zveihandler. It flew straight, with intense speed right at the back of the fleeing enemy. The archer, since he was fleeing down a narrow alleyway, had no way to avoid the attack. He turned around in time to see the vertical line pass through right in the middle of him, and then his vision split in two before he faded away into death. The vertical line cut the running archer in half, right down the middle of his body. It left 2 vertical slices of a corpse next to each other, slowly leaking innards that it once held inside.

The skill was called Shadow Edge, one of the few ranged skills that a [Dark Knight] can possess. Blake remembered that his job was unique in the front link tank types of jobs, it was a job that can actually use magic. Though it was a different type of magic, the magic it uses is based on negative feelings, rage, and pain to fuel its power. Through rigors of painful combat, he was able to unlock the Dark Knight’s magic. But he didn’t have time to be excited, his 2 precious friends were still under attack. He turned around to see how Tyler and Jack were doing and jumped into their battle to give them a hand.

But when he turned around, he was shocked to see that they both handled their respective foes quite well. Jack had sliced the hands of the dual wielder right on off, leaving a quivering body on the floor begging to be spared. His bloody stumps for handles were oozing red all over the ground, and his panicked screams for mercy were spraying it everywhere. But the revealed Aasimar face of Jack’s had only a cruel, viscous grin upon it. He slowly started stabbing at him with his long sword, like a cat playing with a half-dead mouse.

I turned away from the horrid sight of sadism to see if Tyler was doing ok, but he was doing just as well. He killed one hooded attacker pretty quickly it seems, as there is only a headless corpse splayed on the floor with a pool of blood that seems to have finished growing. The head is a little further away, displaying a shocked human face frozen with an expression that seems to project agony. He was in melee combat with another hooded figure, desperate trying to fend off the rather skilled slashes of Tyler’s Scythe. The figure was no longer hooded, showing a terrified, desperate face of a human woman struggling to keep her life. The was already slashed above her eyebrow, leaving a bleeding gash that is leaking fluid into her eye. She was scared, she knew just from the sounds of combat around her that this assault was going extremely wrong. She could feel the end of her life coming, the blade of scythe coming closer and closer with each exhausted defense she put with her sword.

She was desperately defending with every ounce of energy she has, gripping the handle of her swords so hard that her hands bled. Tyler just had a sadistic grin that almost appears feral, he seemed to be toying with her playfully. The sheer cruelty of the scene I am witnessing has made me hesitate to join the battle, shocked to see somebody I called a friend behave so fiendishly. I hear the desperate cries for mercy suddenly stop, the sound of blade tearing the flesh and bone replacing it. A heavy sound of liquid splashing and the sound of a medium fleshly object thudding against the ground. Jack starts whistling as he walks over to where I was to watch Tyler’s battle with the woman.

The woman froze and looked over at the 2 of us standing by in her battle, the rather cheerful whistles coming from Jack painted her face blue. She just stood there, tears running down her eyes. She threw her sword away and just waited for Tyler's scythe to come reap her head. Tyler also waited to see if she had some sort of hidden trick, but he soon realized that she had just surrendered her life.

“Tcch, If you were just gonna give up, do it sooner! I wouldn’t have to waste my time on someone as half-assed as you then.” Tyler said with frustration, as he walked behind the girl to kick her behind the knee.

The cruel blow to the back of her leg makes her land directly on her knees. She was still openly weeping, but she held her head straight out to make her beheading that much quicker and easier. Tyler put the blade right in front of her neck in one last attempt to taunt her, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of his opponent. But she made no more noise other than sobbing, she didn’t want to give her cruel opponent any more fun in her death. I wanted to stop Tyler from dragging this out, but Jack grabbed my arm to indicate he wouldn’t let me stop Tyler. He put a lot of strength into his grip, for some reason he seems to be motivated to prevent me from doing anything to disrupt Tyler’s awful actions.

I sensed a strange energy beginning to form around Tyler’s scythe, something more sinister than my magic. The blade is radiating a deathly aura while also starting to glow a sickly green light. The whole weapon and his right arm holding it becomes almost ghostly, with the green light added to the otherworldly image.

“I am going to give you one chance to speak, who were you people and why did you target us?” Tyler said in a menacing voice.

“Fuck you.” She said with a robotic voice and dead eyes. She had already accepted her death and decided to have one last act of defiance against her killer.

Tyler didn’t even hesitate, he pulled his scythe back to make the perfect division between her head and neck. The cut was so clean, that her head didn’t even move. Just a thin red line leaking blood appeared on her neck before her body collapsed. Her head was finally sent rolling after her body fell forward, sad resignation was the final expression on her face. I finally shook Jack’s arm off to talk to Tyler, but before I could get a word out the headless corpse began to move. It jerked around rigidly, stumbling around on the floor trying to find its missing head. While its body was grossly moving around, the lifeless head began twitching its face. Its eyes were completely rolled up into its head and the tongue was rolling around disgustingly.

Tyler casually walked up to the head, and picked it up gruffly by the hair. He then threw it at the thrashing headless corpse, completing the former “set.” Tyler then pulled out some thick suture thread and needles, it seems he plans on stitching his “doll” back together. Jack and I could only look on disgusted at the unsightly show in front us, seeing Tyler happily complete a gruesome job. When the procedure is over, we are left with a sickly pale human female with a horrible stitch job around the neck. Her eyes were hollow and dead, her black hair is now dull and ragged, and her movement looks like the work of an ameteur puppeteer. I just look at Tyler and Jack with my most disgusted face I can pull off, hoping I can get a proper explanation for this.

“So Blake, I have unlocked some of my necromancy powers! As you can see, we now have a prisoner who will tell us everything we want to know. Pretty great huh?” Tyler said, please with himself.

“How long have you known? Both of you, how long ago did you learn how to make undead?” I said in a quiet voice.

“I knew how straight from the beginning, just it is not something you can use on your allies. Plus people won't be pleased to know I can make undead, you know?” Tyler said in defense.

“I knew about a week ago, Tyler asked me if I could but unfortunately my powers have not awakened yet. I just kept it secret since it is something people would have a problem with.” Jack said nonchalantly, not realizing that this was a big deal.

“So you guys kept important info from the rest of us!? *sigh* ok, I want to lecture but this is not the time and place, we have to leave before we get into trouble. Lets just grab the info from the girl and fucking leave, my hand fucking hurts.” I almost shouted but luckily kept my cool. These fucking guys are going to be a problem, hasn’t their personality warped a little too much?

“Alright! Hey cunt, you wanna answer my questions now?” Tyler said rudely, a cruel smile on his face.

The lifeless doll who was standing completely still, suddenly twitched and stared directly at Tyler. There was not a hint of personality of life inside of those eyes, just a vast emptiness.

“We are slaves owned by a local Clan called the Untamed, they are made solely of beastmen in their organization. They sent us on a suicide mission to capture the tall female.” She said in a lifeless voice, airy and light probably due to the hole that was roughly patched up in her throat.

“As for the Why, we do not know. We are simple slaves, they tell us nothing of the mission purpose. We are not even given names since we are not expected to survive.” She added.

Tyler, Jack, and I looked at each other with frustrated eyes, but there was nothing we could do since this is all that she knew. Jack tried looting their bodies, but they had nothing but the weapons on them. This only further frustrates us since we nearly died for nothing. All we know is that the local gang wants to harm us for the coins we sold at the appraisers, not too much to go on unless we tried investigating the guild. My best idea is to head back and discuss with the brainiacs, they can probably come up with a better plan that I can. I mean, my solution for the stalkers tailing us was just to kill them, which really doesn’t make me any better than Tyler or Jack does it?

We walked back with our minor spoils from the battle, wondering if our injuries were worth it. Tyler put a new hood on the Undead female that he has now named Morticia. It seems that my headaches are only beginning to grow in this city. I can only hope that this discourages the Clan from attacking for a bit, at least until we leave the city. And the fact the beastman makes up the whole of this gang gives me a rather unsettling feeling that we may have chosen poor friends in our first encounter…